HoodaThunk?

I’ve mentioned here before that I’m extremely grateful and proud that the GOP is having to choose between 3 extremely qualified candidates this year for the nomination for Virginia Attorney General. I am on the record, and will say so again right here, that I will gladly support whichever of the 3 candidates wins the nomination next weekend.

It’s no secret that I support John Brownlee for AG. I’ve already stated my reasons and the big one remains that, of the 3 candidates, only Brownlee has actually been a prosecutor. Of the 3, only he has actually done the work he will be responsible for managing and directing in the Attorney General’s office. This is not a situation where either Dave Foster or Ken Cuccinelli are unqualified to do the job. It’s a situation where John Brownlee is more qualified.

I understand the impulse to play up the qualities of the candidate you support and to dismiss the qualifications of that candidate’s opponents but it still makes me raise my eyebrows in surprise to see someone suggest that the prime requisite in being an Attorney General for Virginia – the state’s top prosecutor and the person responsible for directing the actions of all of the state’s prosecutors – is not being a prosector. I refer to a post written over at Too Conservative by VA Blogger. (I’ll refer to VA Blogger as VAB as many do in the comment threads. I do so out of expediency and not as a sign of any disrespect.) I respect VAB’s opinions and writing greatly. He’s got clear thinking and a talent for expressing his views without being callous or insulting of others’.

However… (You knew there was a “however” coming, didn’t ya?) In this particular post he makes a premise out of his view on what the natures of the Attorney General’s office and job are and then concludes what qualities are most important on that basis. I would contend that his premise is flawed. From the post, where VAB is responding to comments made by a Cuccinelli supporter as part of his own support for Foster:

After all, Ken Cuccinelli is a legislator, and therefore is equipped to handle the duties of the Attorney General’s office. Well, maybe. I certainly don’t think Cuccinelli isn’t qualified, but let’s look at what the Attorney General really is (and no, you John Brownlee fans, it’s not a prosecutor). The Attorney General runs the largest law firm in the state. Dave Foster is a long-term partner at Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Count that as another line of reasoning Chris believes in that actually supports Dave Foster!

Emphasis mine. It’s a subtle shot across the bow of the U.S.S. Brownlee for AG but it’s a shot nonetheless. I’ve heard it said on many occasions, and I don’t know who said it first, that the AG’s office is like the largest law firm in the state. Let us not forget, however, that it is most certainly no such thing. It’s not a law firm, it’s a law enforcement agency of the state and the Attorney General isn’t a business manager, he’s the top law enforcement officer of Virginia. I would ask how many criminal prosecutions Foster’s law firm has undertaken. (Or Cuccinelli’s, for that matter?) I would then contend the answer is: zero. There’s a reason for that. Criminal prosecutions are the domain of the state, not private practice. There’s a difference between representing a plaintiff in a contract dispute and representing the People in a rape trial or a murder. Brownlee knows the difference well because he’s been there, done that. There’s no learning curve, here, and Brownlee’s assessments of what his office’s priorities would be wouldn’t be viewed through the prism of a private law firm’s contract and tax dispute cases.

We can take a lesson from other states where a race for Attorney General saw 2 opponents where 1 was a prosecutor and other was not. Most recently such a race was run in Missouri, a state that voted Republican in the 2008 Presidential race. Solidly red, they voted solidly for Democrat Chris Koster over Republican Mike Gibbons. Have a look at Koster’s campaign ad to see what he was focused on. It was this point and this alone: I’ve actually been a prosecutor and my opponent hasn’t. It was that simple and it worked. It’ll work here, too, because the Democrat candidate, Steve Shannon, was an Assistant Commonwealth Attorney in Fairfax. He’ll make the same argument as Koster did in Missouri and it’ll pay off with the citizens of Virginia as it did with those in Missouri. Need I remind anyone that Virginia voted with the Democrats in this last election?

The prime requisite for the top law enforcement office in the Commonwealth is very much experience in the job of law enforcement. It’s not enough to have just been a lawyer or even a partner in a private firm. As much as I like Dave Foster and I respect Ken Cuccinelli they don’t have the experience and our Democrat opponent does. We cannot afford to simply hand that advantage over to the Democrats this year and, as Virginians, we shouldn’t accept someone with no experience at the job when a candidate with that experience is available. John Brownlee is the best candidate for this nomination and I urge my fellow Republicans, my fellow delegates to the RPV Convention in Richmond, to support John Brownlee for Attorney General.